Locally owned 50 cents
September 24, 2014
Review sammamish
Officials meet, discuss controversial Common Core education By Neil Pierson
a fundamental shift in education policy will have a profound The Common Core State impact on the knowledge stuStandards, designed to create dents gain in their classrooms. a consistent set of learning “You change the standards, standards for K-12 students, are you change the test, you change among the most contentious the teaching,” said Sharon topics in public education these Hanek, a Bonney Lake resident days. who runs an education research Politicians, school administra- website and is affiliated with the tors and public policy experts state’s anti-Common Core movediscussed various aspects of ment. Common Core during a town Multiple audience members hall-style meeting Sept. 15 at shared their observations of how Pacific Cascade Middle School. Common Core has impacted stuAbout two dozen audience dents in Issaquah and surroundmembers participated and ing districts. Some complained provided feedback to a seventhat math lessons, for example, person speaking panel. have become unnecessarily While speakers agreed complex by forcing students to schools should be given the learn different methods of multools to provide a quality educatiplication and division. tion for all students, they often Jason Ritchie, an 8th District clashed when it came to whethCongressional candidate who er Common Core was the right has two sons in Issaquah tool for the task. schools, said he has witnessed Common those things “When it comes to Core targets firsthand while grade-level education, we agree that helping his expectations in children with local control is best, and homework. math, reading and language One of them is by local control ... we arts. Since its struggling with mean parent control.” introduction concepts he in 2009, 44 had mastered — Liv Finne two years ago, states have fully adopted Education researcher Ritchie said. it, including “I don’t Washington. think it’s the The federal government has teacher’s fault,” he added. “I endorsed it through incentives think it’s their responsibility to like Race to the Top grants, try to figure it out, and I don’t which financially reward states think they’ve been given the that meet standards on assesstime … to actually implement ment tests, and teacher and (Common Core).” principal evaluations. Panelist Angela Morrison, Chad Magendanz, a former an elementary math and sciIssaquah School Board presience curriculum specialist for dent running for his second Issaquah schools, defended term as a 5th Legislative District Common Core’s methods. state representative, was one “Using different strategies to of the panelists last week. He ultimately get there is just buildexpressed support for Common ing conceptual understanding,” Core, saying it creates minimum Morrison said. “I will admit that standards for student learning when I became a classroom while giving individual districts teacher, I had to relearn math control over how to achieve the myself, because I learned to memorize algorithms and get to goals. an answer.” “The curriculum adoption, Common Core doesn’t the teaching methods, the graddictate how teachers present ing policies are all still deterinformation and run their classmined at the district level,” Magendanz said. See LEARNING, Page 3 Others disagreed, believing
By Greg Farrar
Sammamish police officer Kenny Williams adjusts crime barrier tape around two law enforcement vehicles on the curb in front of a home at the corner of Audubon Park Drive Southeast and Southeast 26th Place. Officers stand on the porch, protecting a homicide scene inside before a search warrant arrives.
Two men arrested, charged in city’s first homicide By Kathleen R. Merrill
Two men have been charged with beating a Boeing manager to death with shovels and then stealing his credit cards and car before fleeing to Canada. Kevin David Patterson, 20, and Christopher Shade, 18, of Issaquah, are being held in British Columbia, Canada. King County prosecutors have charged them with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle. Bail has been set at $2 million for each man. Police said the killing was Sammamish’s first homicide. Police found Richard Bergesen, 57, dead in his home at 23145 S.E. 26th Place after a friend of Patterson’s called 911 at 10:56 a.m. Sept. 17. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office said Bergesen died from multiple blows to the head. Bergesen had met Patterson through Overlake Christian Church in Redmond about a year ago and had allowed the then-
homeless Patterson to live in his home in Sammamish, according to charging papers detailing the crime. The two had even attended church together Sept. 14, just days before the killing, according to a statement from the church. “Rich had recently said that the nearly yearlong experience, though stretching, was positive and that he felt blessed to be able to help someone in this significant way,” the statement said.
The crime According to charging papers from the King County Prosecutor’s Office: Patterson called a friend and told him he hit Bergesen with a shovel and left him “either knocked out or dead.” The friend said Patterson told him Bergesen “made a move on him.” That friend then called police, who found Bergesen on the floor in his bedroom, his hands and legs bound with rope. He was surrounded by blood-stained sheets, covers and pillows.
Investigators found a full-sized garden shovel under his body. In a room where police found documents belonging to Patterson, they also found a small collapsible camping shovel. That shovel was extended and the back of the blade was stained with apparent blood. Patterson and Shade were with two women when they were arrested. Patterson told them he came home and found someone had broken into the house and that Bergesen was dead. He told her he anonymously called 911 and reported the killing, and then left for Canada. See HOMICIDE, Page 10
Prsrt Std U.S. Postage PAID Kent, WA Permit No. 71 POSTAL CUSTOMER
50¢